Bring in the Clowns: The Nefarious Paintings of John Wayne Gacy

What sort of monster wears a clown suit and keeps the bodies of teenage boys in the crawl space of his home? Throughout history, humans have grappled with the question of what drives a person to acts of unspeakable evil. We want to know, because despite their evil acts, serial killers hide amongst us in plain sight. No matter the number of victims, or their sinister game, the killers hold jobs, shop for groceries, hang out at local pubs or entertain our children, sometimes as a clown.

John Wayne Gacy was married, managed three Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets in Iowa, and was the vice-president of the United States Junior Chamber, a civic organization that focused on community service and developing business skills. He later owned a construction company, hosted neighbourhood parties, and was a member of the “Jolly Joker” clown club, where he would dress up as a clown, perform at local charity events, and voluntarily visit sick kids at the local hospital.

To the horror of those around him, this “upstanding citizen” raped and murdered thirty-three teenage boys and young men within a span of six years, burying twenty-six of them in the crawl space of his home right under his neighbours’ noses. For most of his Summerdale neighbours, the mere mention of his name arouses conflicting emotions:

“What he did was carefully, thoroughly planned, John Gacy is Satan.”

“He slept for six years in that house with all those people buried there? That’s not normal. That’s insane.”

An investigation culminated in Gacy’s capture in 1978, conviction and execution in 1994. After his capture, he became the “Killer Clown,” a nifty moniker that seemed to exemplify the unexpected revelation that he was a serial killer. Strangely, Gacy seemed to revel in his clown persona. Part of the serial killer’s method is façade, the ability to live an apparently normal life between, and in spite of, his accumulating murderous episodes. Gacy’s clown persona brought an almost theatrical element to his brutal acts – an image that he continued to exploit while in prison.

In May 2011, the Arts Factory opened an exhibition with 75 Gacy works to sell for between $2,000 and $12,000 apiece. The proceeds from the exhibit, “according to the wishes of the executor of Gacy’s art portfolio,” were to go to “the community at large, including the Contemporary Arts Center, 18b Arts District and the National Center for Victims of Crime.” However, as CNN reported at the time, the National Center for Victims of Crime refused any of the proceeds, sending a cease-and-desist letter to the gallery owner, Westly Myles.

Curse of the Clown Artist

During his 14-years on death row, Gacy took up oil painting using his favorite pet subject: himself, as Pogo the Clown. He said he used his clown act as an alter ego, saying once quite sardonically that, “A clown can get away with murder.” Particularly terrifying is that Gacy, a man already convicted of sexual assault, gained access to children in his guise as an innocuous clown. This highly publicized killer fueled America’s already growing fears of “stranger danger” and sexual predation on children, and made clowns a real object of fear and suspicion.

The clown’s art is rather terrifying and full of anxiety and apprehension; their suicidal feats, monstrous gestures and frenzied mimicry remind us of the stage of a lunatic asylum. Clowns are unsettling—and a great source for drama. In America, the heyday of clowns corresponds with the television age with child entertainers like Howdy Doody’s silent partner, Clarabell the Clown, and Bozo the Clown.

The public outcry against Gacy’s art is tantamount to a belief that his paintings are evil talismans. But are they? Should art not be valued for its aesthetic appeal and contribution to the cultural landscape rather than on the morality of its creator? Does the rule “once a serial killer, always a serial killer” mean that Gacy’s paintings are not legitimate cultural objects worthy of study or collecting? The great painter, Caravaggio, was a murderer; Picasso was a wife beater; Francis Bacon was a thief and a prostitute; and the filmmaker, Roman Polanski, possibly a hebephile.

However, the inherent evil and creepiness of Gacy’s art cannot be ignored. In 2001, singer Nikki Stone’s penchant for collecting ‘murderabilia’ took a morbid turn after purchasing “Pogo the Clown” for $3,000 from Arthur Rosenblatt. Afterwards, his beloved dog died and his mother found out she had cancer. Were these tragic events just a coincidence? Maybe, but when a friend stored the painting at his house, the friend’s neighbour suddenly died in a car crash. A second friend who then agreed to keep the painting attempted suicide. Oddly, actor Johnny Depp also invested in a Gacy clown painting, and reportedly became so freaked out that he developed a pathological fear of clowns and unloaded the artwork.

Profiling ‘Pogo the Clown’

Part of the appeal (or repulsion) of Gacy’s clowns are their ghoulishness — people have always been intrigued by violence and death. Just consider the popularity of shows like Criminal Minds, Dexter, The Following and Hannibal. Part of this fascination with “criminal artwork” also stems from a belief that it will help us better understand the twisted mind of a serial killer. Everyone likes to play amateur psychologist — so, what can we glean from Ramirez’ freaky devil faces or Gacy’s sinister clowns? Sociopaths or narcissists have a need for attention. They are also manipulative, and in the case of Gacy, duplicitous as hell.

Gacy’s clown portraits are primitive and creepy. His paintings are not masterpieces by any stretch, but do fit within the rubric of “Outsider Art.” I find his clown faces chilling to the bone, eerily disarming and freakishly charming. Possibly my reaction is pure fantasy and projection. The interpretation of art can be subjective, yet most paintings can offer clues that help us to piece together a story, and possibly, a profile.

In “Hi Ho with Clown,” we see a flat and ghostly rendition of Pogo the Clown surrounded by the Seven Dwarfs. In contrast to their sculptural and animated faces, Gacy’s face is a flattened caricature — void of dimension or emotion, and accented with a black hole that enters his head and escapes into the background of a dark forest. Was it merely a Freudian slip to adorn himself in a frilly white suit laced with red? Or did he inhabit the role of Snow White in an attempt to reconcile a love/hate relationship with his sexuality? It is also peculiar that in many of Gacy’s clown paintings, you can see his hand seemingly severed from the rest of his body. Is this just the awkward skills of a naïve painter or is it a sign of his severe disassociation and a lack of remorse for assaulting and killing victims with his monstrous acts?

The idea that serial killer art can infect people with its evil miasma is an absurdity that may still hold a grain of truth. Although a painting cannot murder, it can have a profound effect on our psyches. A work of art is not a free or perverse agent acting in the world. It’s what we project onto an artwork that gives it meaning or power. Although Gacy’s canvases may be soaked in the blood of his victims (at least figuratively), should we really prohibit the exhibiting or selling of his art?

Burning of the Clowns

Some people have actually bought Gacy’s paintings specifically to destroy them. A bonfire in Naperville, Illinois in June 1994 was attended by 300 people, including family members of nine victims who watched 25 of his paintings burn to ash. While it can be seen as disturbing that people have paid $200,000 for a Gacy painting, the reasons one might desire to own his art are multifaceted. The motivation might be greed. For others it might be an aesthetic appeal or the morbid allure of owning a painting made by the “bloody” hands of an “iconic” killer clown. It might also be for the purposes of using the images to study the psychological profile of a serial killer. Are some of the reasons legitimate, and others not?

Haunted by Gacy’s own horrendous acts, his nefarious clowns have seeped into our collective conscience. It is difficult to say whether Gacy is the cause of clown phobias or that his sinister caricatures influenced the popularity of scary clowns like It, Krusty the Clown or Heath Ledger’s version of The Joker. What clown phobias really come down to is fear of the person under the make-up – and a savage but “seemingly caring” serial killer dressed up as a clown epitomizes that fear.

While I won’t argue that concerns about victims’ feelings are irrelevant to the marketing of Gacy’s art, I do think the calls for censorship are misguided. The Gacy clown painting controversy highlights the difference between the idea of art as a sacred object or art as an evil talisman. Yet, art is inevitably a window into the human soul or psyche. Is it possible that instead of evil lurking in the paintings of John Wayne Gacy, that our morbid fascination is merely a function of our human compulsion to project fantasies and fears onto these inanimate yet curiously evocative objects?

I found this to be an interesting article. I’m not sure I believe his artwork should be censored, but I can’t deny they are bone chilling to look at, considering his history. The feelings that must go through the minds of his victims family and loved ones when looking at these painting would be horrendous, to say the least.

I agree that the existence of his paintings are a conundrum of sorts — especially when it comes to his victims’ families. The art work would be horrible reminders of a horrible man who did horrible things to their loved ones. Gacy is certainly not someone who should be reverenced and possibly hanging on to his art work is doing just that?

Lissa, another great article! I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the artwork thing. It is extremely limiting what inmates who are serving time on death row or in solitary can do to pass the hours (or LWOP, etc.) so art seems to be one that many pursue and some even have some latent talent. While I don’t think that Gacy was talented particularly, his artwork is the epitome of interest and I believe the forerunner for murderabilia due to his infamy.

On the clown subject I like to think that part of our fascination is to try to see behind the mask, or makeup. I remember reading in “The Last Victim” by Jason Moss that when Gacy was learning to be a clown he was told not to use any pointy lines in his makeup as children find them scary and yet he decided to give Pogo definitive pointy lines. I have to wonder if he was daring us to “see behind the mask” well before he started his paintings on canvas.

The subject of other artists throughout history having some issues (to put it mildly) seems to be pretty prevalent in the artistic community (no offense intended to any artists!!!) but I think the majority of them were discovered and appreciated for their abilities and talent and not due to infamy and our hideous media hype of today.

Lori, I agree, there is very little for death row inmates to do! I find that bothersome considering how long some of them sit in isolation. Your point about Gacy’s make up is a good one. I think he might have used the clown as a mask and his mouth was expressive of his darker self. What I do find interesting about his clown paintings is that they clearly articulate a man who was aware of his different facets — and in particular, his darker, disassociated part.

I was “googling” Pogo the Clown because I have two of these paintings and I am interested in selling them. There seems to only be one site that actually has Pogo paintings… other sites are “sold out”. I bought them when he was still alive and I did not pay that much for them. I was in a different place at the time and I thought it would be cool to own something so weird. I hung one up in my old apartment but I never put either up in the place I moved in to in 2001. I see the prices they are getting and I know part of the reason is because so many were burned up. I am going to keep looking for a place to sell them and I definitely would donate some of the money to a charity.

Thank you so much for posting a comment. I am utterly fascinated that you bought his paintings. I have much to say on the subject, but it’s mid week and I probably won’t post more until the weekend.I will say humans are a weird bunch. I think killing criminals like Gacy and burning their art work is a short-sighted and emotionally-driven endeavor. There is much to be learned from these persons and their artifacts of expression, but alas, such learnings are mostly lost.

I say, you bought the paintings, do with them what you like. You are not obligated to anyone for making the purchase as far as I am concerned.

Hello Couch. Your blogs are thought provoking and your ethos is interesting. I am particularly interested in your view on art and the effect / aesthetic transference on the viewer, as well as the concept of art as sublimation… I would like to quote you if I may (for my thesis), I would appreciate knowing what references you draw from for your articles; especially the Gacy work. I am a clinical Art Psychotherapist trainee working in a forensic setting. Many thanks, Eden